Midnight In The Castle
by Colli
Summary: Xanatos and his best friend, an Ice-Dragon untastefully named Brian, live in a Scottish Castle in 'Skatch. Who told everyone Brain's real name!?


Author: Colli  
  
Title: Midnight In The Castle  
  
Rating: PG – Oooh! Scary dragon!  
  
Setting: Alternate Universe – Futuresque, or something – Saskatchewan is the capital of Earth, and Table Mountain is the home of Xani's Scottish castle.  
  
Note: Right – this was for a French Mystery Story thing that I had to write… I had been drawing a funky looking dragon instead of paying attention in class, and after I thought how cool would it be to write a story 'bout this draggy and Xanatos! Cuz we all love Xan right!? Right.  
  
Disclaimer: Xan is StarWars's, "Khelek" is elvish for "ice", the dragon is mine, 'Skatch is Canada's.  
  
  
  
Midnight In The Castle  
  
"Yanno what, Khelek?" Xanatos began. "I think it's time we retired from this crazy business…" he mused while opening the large stone door that lay before him and his partner in crime.  
  
Khelek, known also as "Brian" by Xanatos and his own mother, grinned large, silver, needle-like fangs. The opened door lead into a massive chamber filled with piles and piles, and tons and tons of hoarded wealth – into which they both stepped.  
  
"I must agree with you on this matter, Xanatos. My scales are beginning to de-frost from all of our exploits down south," replied Khelek. Being an ice-dragon of gigantic proportion, it is obvious to state that he spoke in a deep, rumbling, British accent.  
  
The two entered into the middle of the hall, paused a moment, glanced at each other, then abruptly lunged deep into their riches, swimming if you will, and hollering shouts of glee.  
  
"I have an idea!!" Xanatos exclaimed, sitting up suddenly, in the middle of a particularly precious pile of sapphires. Rolling onto his belly, the dragon blinked at his human friend, as if astonished that he may have found something more fun to do than bathing in jewels.  
  
"Let's lord it over the whole country-side!!" Xanatos beamed.  
  
Gasping as he sprang to all fours, Khelek giggled, "KAY!"  
  
With a perfectly plucked eyebrow arched, Xan hesitated, "Did… did you just… giggle…?"  
  
Khelek looked embarrassed and cleared his throat, "Uh… no. Must have been… The wind." He glanced from side to side, and then hung his head in shame.  
  
"Riiiiiiight… Anyway," Xanatos eyes the pale blue flying lizard- giant. "To Table Mountain!" He pointed to the ceiling, matter-of-factly, with his other hand on his hip.  
  
One step outside of the gi-normous Scottish Castle the two of them shared, Xanatos realized he should really try to keep track of where they kept their abode – on top of Table Mountain, over-looking the vast expanse of Saskatchewan.  
  
Gazing out upon the flat land of the prairies, Khelek bluntly observed, "And no one believed you when you said that 'skatch would end up being the capital of Earth."  
  
Xanatos, who was now perched right behind the dragon's head so he could hang on to his horns, grinning, "Nobody but you, Brian." He purposely added emphasis to his unpopular name.  
  
Suddenly, he was looking up into the glaring eyes of "Brian", from his back, on the ground. Khelek snorted frosty breath onto Xanatos and snarled, "I told you never to call me that." Xan tried to say something sarcastic, but found that the wind had been knocked out of him. He nodded, and Khelek turned brusquely away, toward the edge of the plateau.  
  
After a few seconds of recuperation, Xanatos joined him there. "So… Wanna go for a ride? I've got a list of stuff I need to get…"  
  
Icy scales shrugged and Khelek lay down so Xanatos could climb on easier. "Sure, I guess. Where to?"  
  
Xan, a nimble young man, ran up along Khelek's tail and onto his back – deciding to ride this one sitting between his large flight-wings. The other, smaller pairs were for hovering, after all.  
  
"Let's go to someplace new…" he considered, "hmm… Surprise me!"  
  
Khelek snickered evilly and left off the ledge and out into the air. They were soaring fast, powered by the sixteen-foot wingspan of the ice- dragon. Xanatos had to force himself to keep from looking down; if he happened to glance below his feet, his stomach turned.  
  
A few minutes and several kilometers later, they exited the clouds and began a spiraling descent toward the solid fields. Khelek glanced over his shoulder several times, with a wicked smile, checking on his rider. People screamed and fled in terror of the huge beast falling from the sky. Parallel with the ground, Khelek's hover-wings kicked in to action and they stopped suddenly, a few meters from the ground.  
  
"Ow…" Xanatos mumbled as he peeled himself from the dragon's back. "I think my brain came out my eyes…"  
  
Khelek rolled over to hover inverted-style. Xan fell onto his face and swore. "I will return in an hour. Be here," the dragon flipped back over and shot up into the atmosphere.  
  
Xanatos hopped up and brushed himself off. Murmurs of shocked standers-by reached his ears.  
  
"What are you all staring' at!?" Xan screamed. "Do you mind?!?!" Oddly enough, the citizens of Saskatchewan did not have many encounters with beautiful, longhaired men and their best friends – ice dragons. Xanatos could not understand this because he was so accustomed to being pretty. He flung his longer-than-shoulder-length black hair over his shoulder and stormed off to the nearest convenience store.  
  
Xan pulled out his list of necessary shopping items. He read it aloud, "Xani's List of Things to Get When Out to Get Things. By Xanatos DuCruet: Potatoes, Watering Can, Tinted Sun Glasses, World's Largest Cubic Zirconium, Gum."  
  
Inside the store, several people stared as he tried on pair after pair of tinted shades, meowing at himself in the mirror. Finally, Xanatos chose to buy the purple-fading-to-pink ones. They accented his eyes wonderfully and got rid of that greenish tinge in his pale complexion. He quickly collected the rest of the items on his list, and thought how lucky he was: he managed to get the last World's Largest Cubic Zirconium. Xan walked out of the store without paying – Khelek would be able to handle any people who had a problem with it.  
  
Amazingly, this short trip to market took an hour, and the dragon was perched on top of the store roof. Seeing Xanatos, he hopped down and lifted him onto his back.  
  
"Find everything you needed?"  
  
"Mm-hm…" Xanatos whipped on his new sunglasses and grinned a wide- mouthed, dazzling grin as Khelek's massive head turned to look at him. Khelek chuckled and sprang up into the air.  
  
As they flew home to their huge, stone, Scottish castle, Khelek's sharp, dragon eyes caught sight of strange patterns mowed into the fields. He swooped lower, and was stunned to discover that someone had written about him in the rows of wheat.  
  
Xan saw the look on his pal's face, and followed his gaze to the ground. When he saw what was mowed into the field, he almost fell off Khelek's back.  
  
The movement was mistaken as muffled laugher, by the dragon, and the ragingly concluded that this was one of his "friend's" pranks. Infuriated, Khelek hovered meters above the ground momentarily, and dumped Xanatos from his perch.  
  
"Hey!!" Xanatos yelled to the departing figure, "What did I do?!" He scoffed and got up from the ground, fully insulted.  
  
Then he realized. The message in the field. "Ohhh….. He must have thought I told someone…." Xan pouted – He'd never do something like that!  
  
He began walking toward their castle, which was in sight and only a few kilometers away. He wondered how he'd be able to talk to Khelek without running the risk of being eternally encased in a cube of ice.  
  
A few hours later, Xanatos finally made it home. All of the windows were frosted and icicles were hanging allover the castle walls. "Jeeze…" Xan muttered to himself, "Someone's in a mood today…"  
  
An enormous, blue, reptilian eye appeared in the window Xan was peering into. "Hey! Khelek! Come on out, I need to talk to you!" Xanatos called. The eyes left the window, and Xan was surprised at how easy this was going to be – usually, once the dragon got pissed, it was hellishly hard to get him to come around. Unfortunately, it wasn't gonna be that easy this time either. As quickly as the eye disappeared, a snout was framed in the window. Bring, blindingly blue flames shot out and engulfed the pane, which soon melted out of existence and was replaced with a thick layer of solid ice.  
  
Xanatos was glad that he ducked just in time; if he hadn't, his entire body would have become a crystallized statue. He gave up and sat on the edge of the plateau, where he eventually fell asleep.  
  
The next morning, when the sun rose right into the drooping face of Xan, he moaned. 6 a.m… I had almost forgotten this time of day even existed anymore… He pandiculated and turned around.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Khelek had been sitting right behind him, waiting for him to wake up, with his huge, silver, fleshing-ripping fangs at the level of Xan's eyes.  
  
Xanatos feinted, so the dragon had to carry him inside, to his room.  
  
After waking up for the second time that morning, Xan had horrible ringing in his ears… Then he remembered why: His own girlish screams. He noticed that he was now in his bed, in his room.  
  
Khelek stomped in, with a face that gave Xanatos a pang in his heart.  
  
Seeing he was awake, the dragon lay down beside the bed so that he was closer to eye-level with the man, "Xan, why did you do that? I can't believe you'd tell people that…" He was of course referring to the message in the field.  
  
"But, I didn't! I was in that store the whole time!" Xan almost yelled.  
  
"Then how did someone else find out?! Only you and my mother know my real name, Xanatos!!"  
  
"Well, I don't know! But it sure as hell wasn't my fault! Let me alone!"  
  
Khelek was beginning to become enraged again; his eyes flashed an icy blue-white, and he drew himself up to his full size, entirely filling the room.  
  
Xanatos was terrified, but knew that there was nothing he could do now – he would become another frozen trophy for this great beast to play with. Xan cringed, with his eyes tightly shut, awaiting his own doom… But nothing happened…  
  
Hesitantly, he opened one eye to survey the situation. Khelek was still drawn up, imposingly, over him, but unmoving. His large, pale blue head was turned toward the window, ears perked up and forward, as if straining to hear some distant sound.  
  
Then Xan heard it too. A faint, roaring, squawk came from far away outside. "What is that?" Xan asked carefully, hoping not to draw too much attention back to himself all at once.  
  
Khelek slouched down and stood on all fours again. He thumped over to the window. "My mother," he replied, sounding more than a bit agitated.  
  
Xan gaped and jumped over to the window. Rapidly flying toward their castle was a larger, female version of Khelek. Blue flames leapt from her icy jaws, turning fields into frozen, desolate, deserts.  
  
"Shit," Xan cursed. "She's huge!!"  
  
They ran outside just as she touched down. The new dragon also had a British accent, much like Khelek's, but more feminine and smoother, "Hi honey! Happy Birthday! Oh… Brain, there's…." she lowered her voice, thinking that Xan wouldn't be able to hear her, "There's a human on your back, darling…"  
  
Khelek grumbled at his proper name. "Mom, call me Khelek! You know how much I hate that name! Oh…" He gestured over his shoulder, "And this is Xanatos DuCruet."  
  
Xan waved slowly, "Uh… hi…"  
  
Khelek's mother scoffed. She preferred humans on a plate, and did not approve of her son's lifestyle. How often do you meet a dragon that's a vegetarian, anyway? She found it disgusting.  
  
"Your name is Brian, and that's what I'll call you! It's a family name for heaven's sake! You can't just drop it like a family member!" she growled.  
  
"Khelek's eyes grew wide with realization. "It was you, wasn't it!? How could you embarrass me like that?!" he was furious, remembering the message in the field the day before. It had read: Hey Brian! How are you, sweetheart? Happy Birthday!! Followed stylishly by many x's and o's. He felt like he was gonna bust.  
  
"I'm sorry, Xanatos. Will you excuse us a moment?" He lat down to that he could jump off easier.  
  
Snarling an incomprehensible language of old, Khelek leaped into the air, spewing fiery ice-flames. He seemed possessed and his mother was obviously frightened. He knocked her off the ledge and chased her out of sight, roaring what were most likely threats and obscenities.  
  
Xanatos stood, slack-jawed, staring at the spot where the dragons had vanished. He turned slowly and walked into the castle. He was having trouble processing what he'd just experienced.  
  
"I'm having trouble processing what I've just experienced…" he mumbled to himself. "I think I'm gonna have a nap…" He collapsed promptly to the floor of the main hall, unconscious.  
  
When Xanatos woke for the third time that day, he rolled over and smacked into a scaly side. Khelek was laying nest to him.  
  
"Yanno what, Xanatos," Khelek began. "I think it's time we retired from this crazy business…" he mused.  
  
A small, human-sized fist flung out and whacked the dragon's cheek, though a small fist like that couldn't do any harm at all. 


End file.
